The Hitler at the wax museum was going to be tastefully done–
Placed behind a red cordon, the wax image in Berlin’s new Madame Tussauds has a sign asking visitors to refrain from taking photographs or attempting to pose alongside the figure, out of respect for the millions who died in World War II. A member of staff will be on hand to ensure they don’t.
But someone had to get rambunctious”
A man tore the head off a controversial Adolf Hitler wax figure at Madame Tussauds’ new branch in Berlin on its opening day Saturday, officials said.
German police said they arrested the 41-year-old man. He was the second visitor to enter the museum, employee Stephan Koch said.
Koch said he and a colleague tried unsuccessfully to prevent the man from jumping over a table in front of the figure and damaging it, and said the assailant attacked his colleague.
The man pushed aside the two museum employees and “ripped off the head of the Hitler figure,” police spokesman Uwe Kozelnik said on n-tv television.
Couldn’t he have just blogged about it? There was a worry that Neo-Nazi tourists might pose with the wax Hitler as a souvenir for the folks back home. The vandal may have done one better.
He’ll need a good lawyer, but now he’s world-famous as the guy who ripped Hitler’s head off.
Kmareka.com 
It’s not like Hitler really fit the venue all that well anyway. See Bloomberg.com link below for more details on Madame Toussauds’ new branch. Why pay tribute to the horrors this pathological Narcissist inflicted, detracting from the real focus of his actions and the many victims and survivors who still live to tell the tale? If Tussauds really wanted to be making an historically accurate statment, than why not wax the real heroes and heroines from that atrocity? Makes a more powerful statement, if indeed that was the goal!
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Wax Hitler Steals Show at Berlin Madame Tussauds (Update1)
By Catherine Hickley
July 4 (Bloomberg) — Adolf Hitler is slumped at his desk, lost in thought, a broken man confined to his bunker.
Placed behind a red cordon, the wax image in Berlin’s new Madame Tussauds has a sign asking visitors to refrain from taking photographs or attempting to pose alongside the figure, out of respect for the millions who died in World War II. A member of staff will be on hand to ensure they don’t.
The museum chose not to show the Nazi dictator upright in uniform, eager for world domination, as in the London display, where he’s fodder for tourist snapshots. In Berlin, even a wax Hitler upset local sensibilities, prompting questions from Mayor Klaus Wowereit (who features in the same “history and politics” section of the exhibition).
Some commentators called it “tasteless.” They said the figure may attract neo-Nazis and cautioned against turning historical debates into “consumerism and entertainment.” Madame Tussauds said it would leave a gap in German history if Hitler wasn’t included and cited market research showing visitors wanted him there.
As television crews and photographers lined up behind the red cordon, Madame Tussauds staff said they hoped Hitler wouldn’t steal the show.
“It would really be a great shame if all the focus was on this one waxwork,” said Meike Schulze, a manager for Merlin Entertainments Group, which runs Madame Tussauds and invested 10.5 million euros ($16.5 million) in the Berlin branch. “We have lots of other interesting figures.”
Freud’s Couch
Visitors can recline on Sigmund Freud’s couch and recount their childhood as the psychologist leans back in his chair waving a cigar. They can cozy up to George Clooney, don a shaggy wig and guitar to pogo alongside Bono and practice virtual shots at a soccer goal under the watchful eye of Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Or they can pose with a cane and a top hat next to Marlene Dietrich, who rejected film offers from the Nazis and left in 1937 for the U.S., where she took citizenship. She returned to Germany as part of a European tour in 1960, meeting both admiration and accusations she had betrayed her country.
Those with celebrity aspirations might want to circulate at a cocktail party with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Robbie Williams, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman. Trivia fans can pose opposite quiz-show host Guenther Jauch on a replica set of the German edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
Merkel Model
Political buffs can deliver a speech to the nation next to Chancellor Angela Merkel, safe in the knowledge that she won’t interrupt. Her model is actually one of the weaker likenesses, while the mustachioed Bismarck is so lifelike, you almost expect to hear him breathing wheezily under his spiked Prussian helmet.
A brooding Beethoven, wild-haired Einstein and pipe-puffing Guenter Grass feature in the culture section. In sport, Oliver Kahn gestures ferociously and shouts at the defense, while a relaxed Franz Beckenbauer smiles. Boris Becker is depicted as he looks today, rather than in his tennis prime — a little dissipated with designer stubble and bleached spiky hair.
The museum has 75 waxworks with room for many more, Schulze said. It opens to the public tomorrow on Berlin’s Unter den Linden, not far from the Brandenburg Gate. For more information, go to http://www.madametussauds.com.
(Catherine Hickley writes for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer on this review: Catherine Hickley in Berlin at chickley@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 4, 2008 07:03 EDT
Exactly! No one said anything about “forgive and forget,” only that the focus (of this particular piece in the exhibit) be placed where it is most significant, most powerful…on the population(s) of people Hitler attempted to eliminate. We should NEVER forget and forgiveness is a matter of individual preference. As for me personally, I don’t feel I need to do either.
When I first heard about the exhibit, I had ambivalence, but my gut reaction to hearing of the “executioner”‘s action was gratitude and respect.
I’m no lawyer, but I imagine it won’t be hard to defend him.
the latest news is that the museum is going to glue the head back on.
If I were a teenager, I might take that as a personal challenge.
In an upcoming post i will publish my business plan for manufacturing wax Hitlers (small ones). Many of us feel the stress of modern life. Imagine, after a tough day at work, coming home and ripping Hitler’s head off. How much do you think I could charge for a dozen?